JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal appeals court says it is ending a long-running dispute over whether the state or the city will control the airport board in Mississippi’s capital of Jackson, apparently clearing the way for a new board controlled mostly by state-appointed members.
Republican legislators who pushed for a new board said Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport should have a regional governing authority because it serves a regional customer base. Critics of the change said white suburban Republicans were trying to steal an asset controlled by Democratic officials in the majority-Black city of Jackson.
In 2016, some Jackson residents sued then-Gov. Phil Bryant and several legislators months after Bryant, a Republican, signed a law to create a new airport board. Changes have been on hold during the court fight.
Members of the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs, and multiple appeals have been filed in the case.
A three-judge panel on Tuesday ordered a district judge to dismiss the suit, saying city-appointed airport board members failed to show they would be harmed by a change in the governing authority.
“Groundhog Day has come to an end,” Appeals Court Judge Edith H. Jones wrote.
Jackson has maintained control of the airport during the dispute, and city officials currently have the power to appoint a five-member board.
Under the 2016 law creating a nine-person airport board, five members would be appointed by state officials: two by the governor and one each by the lieutenant governor, the Mississippi National Guard adjutant general and the Mississippi Development Authority director. The Jackson mayor would make one appointment, as would the Jackson City Council. Supervisors in suburban Madison and Rankin counties would each appoint one member.
Emily Wagster Pettus, The Associated Press